The Nature of Science

According to Campbell’s 5th Edition of Biology, science is a process, a process of understanding and explaining phenomenon. It is the nature of scientists to be skeptic, to want to accumulate evidence that either supports or rejects a hypothesis. Scientists will rarely use the words prove, assume, or believe. Those words go against the nature of science. Instead, scientists will use words such as experiment, support, or reject.

At the start of every semester, of every science class, the student will study the scientific method. The scientific method is based on hypothetico-deductive thinking where a hypothesis, or possible explanation, is presented. Then, experiments are performed to test that hypothesis. In this manner evidence accumulates to either support or reject the hypothesis. When a large body of evidence accumulates in support of a hypothesis, the hypothesis will become accepted by the scientific community and a theory is established.